His currency wasn't bogus but his hassle all too real

WESTBORO 
A bank teller mistakenly identified 14 $100 bills as counterfeit earlier this week, causing the money to be seized for review by federal agents and leaving a local laborer with empty pockets.

Carlos Rivas, 43, of Fisher Street reported to Westboro police Monday he had cashed his paycheck from FIBA Technologies at the Sovereign Bank branch at 70 East Main St., which is the bank that his paycheck is drawn from, and then went to deposit money at his bank, Citizens Bank at 32 Lyman St., only to have the bulk of the cash from Sovereign Bank — about $1,400 in $100 bills — confiscated for fear it was counterfeit. Four other $100 bills were not suspect.

The Westboro Police contacted the Secret Service to assist in the investigation.

It seems that while all money may be green, proving it is real may not be so easy.

The bills in question dated back to the 1970s or 1980s, Police Chief Alan Gordon said.

“When money gets old, the Federal Reserve retires the old bills and reissues new bills with the same serial number, and marks them with a star to indicate it is reissued,” Chief Gordon explained.

It seems that the bills Mr. Rivas took to Citizens Bank were printed about 30 years ago, but lacked the marking that is used on today's bills to confirm authenticity.

Sovereign Bank released a statement saying, “Sovereign Bank is pleased that the situation is resolved for the customer and that the investigation showed that the currency given to Mr. Rivas was in fact legal tender, not counterfeit.”

The Secret Service said it will deposit the money into Mr. Rivas' account at Citizens Bank.

Lauren Digeronimo, a spokeswoman for Citizens Bank, said she could not comment specifically on this situation but said, “When the Secret Service confirms the authenticity of confiscated bills, we return the funds to customers as quickly as possible.”

Meanwhile, the Rivas family is happy the issue has been resolved but frustrated by the ordeal.

“The police said we are going to get our money back, but we want to make sure it's the right amount,” Leticia Rivas, Mr. Rivas' wife, said. “We don't want the same thing to happen to another person. We are sorry this happened, but we need our money. We have bills, our son is in college. He has books to buy and they are expensive.”